#TuesdayNotes: Human Evil and Free Will
Dear StarFires~ Today I ventured on a journey to better understand human psychology by searching up some of the most notorious criminal cases in history. The proverb “Ignorance is bliss”, applied perfectly to me when I came across the case of Sylvia Likens, which was so overbearingly disturbing, that it left a permanent, nasty impression on my mind.
The case of Sylvia Likens is a truly horrendous one. To describe it in the least horrible way, she was a young girl from Indiana who was left by her parents to be taken care of by a demon in the body of a woman. This woman, along with her demonic children and some demonic neighborhood boys tortured Likens in various unspeakable ways over a period of time and eventually, brutally murdered her.
When the demons were arrested, most of them were only punished with serving small amount of jail time and almost all of them went on to live long lives with several children.
After reading about this case, it would not be an exaggeration to say that my blood boiled up. Even though this terrible tragedy took place more than 50 years ago (and all the demons convicted in her murder are already dead and rotting in hell), it still doesn’t leave me at peace.
The fact that someone could be the root of so much evil and get away with it just doesn’t sit well with me. I am by nature, a person of great empathy and when I find out about these terrible things, my heart hurts for a very long time, and I suffer from a number of emotions, including extreme anger for being so powerless. Even though I didn’t exist back then, living in a country like Pakistan, its not uncommon to hear about terrible evils committed by humans. And in these situations, I feel powerless. A powerless human being who can’t comprehend or rid the world of human evil.
Yes, I can’t comprehend it at all.
Why do some people behave the way they do? Why do people commit evil?
Questions like these bother me all the time. Even though I haven’t found a definite answer yet, with my research, I’m starting to get there.
A Stanford scientist, Sean Illing conducted a research on the biology of human evil. His findings show that people like me with moderate or high empathy levels possess in our bodies the hormone “Oxytocin”, a.k.a, the “moral molecule”. In order to have the right levels of Oxytocin in our bodies, we require love and nurturing from an early age. Those, for whom this condition is not met, this hormone becomes lacking and as result, they are devoid of empathy. When you lack empathy, you are not afraid to hurt people: physically or emotionally and you become a dangerous person to the society, labelled as a psychopath. Most criminals who are not insane, are psychopaths.
With the research of Mr.Sean, I was able to gain some insight into the behaviors of such audacious criminals. By doing this, I can “understand” why someone might act this way, but for some reason, it doesn’t make me hate them any less.
Recently, I also came across the case of the criminal and murderer Robert Harris, who shot two teenage boys, stole their car and robbed a bank. Harris had a history of severe child abuse and was a victim of “Fetal Alcohol Disorder”, which causes intellectual disability and criminal behavior in those affected by it.
After knowing his tragic history, I am faced by some very important questions.
Were the actions of Robert Harris a result of his own choices or were they affected by factors he could not possibly control?
What if all our decisions are only a result of chemicals like Oxytocin running in our blood and free will is merely an illusion?
Even if this was the case, for some reason I am still unable to sympathize with Robert Harris or the murderers of Sylvia Likens.
Because from what I know, people go through all kinds of ordeals in life. Some, more harsh than others. Everyone gets evil urges at times, but to be able to resist them and do only whats right is what differentiates us from animals. After all, what makes us human is the ability to distinguish between what’s wrong or right, and undoubtedly, all of us are born with that ability and intuition.
Though at times I find myself questioning it, I do believe in free will. I do think we have a final say in all our actions. If we didn’t, this world would have been a terrible place.
And a terrible place it might seem to be, but there is also so much love and kindness to eradicate evil because of good people who have been through terrible things, but still choose to do the right thing.
I wish I could spread empathy among people and make this world a better place. It might sound simple and dumb, but change starts with you and me.
